A green dress in Rio, a ring and a question…

Green is not a colour I wear often. Its not that I don’t like it, I just don’t think it really suits me.

But this one time… in Rio, I wore a green dress and I won’t ever forget it!

Rio was the second stop on our epic South American adventure and gosh, we fell in love with her! On this particular day, we had been out and about, exploring the Ipanema markets, hanging out at the beach, lunching at THAT cafe {The Garota de Ipanema: Where “The Girl from Ipanema” was written} and getting to know the amazing city that is Rio DeJaneiro during Carnival. A dream come true.

THAT Cafe. The Garota de Ipanema: Where “The Girl from Ipanema” was written

After a fun filled day, we headed back to our hotel to freshen up before heading off to catch the sunset from the top of Sugar Loaf mountain {Pao de Acucar}, followed by dinner and a bloco – a street party held during Carnival. I was going to wash my hair, but time was of the essence if we wanted to see the sun set so I wacked it back into a messy updo, popped on the green dress and a slick of mascara and off we went.

We took two cable cars to get to the top, the doors opened and there were people everywhere! Seems we were not the only tourists wanting to see the sunset over one of the worlds most amazing cities!

I had started to walk in the direction of the sun set, but C took my hand and pulled me in the opposite direction saying “No, THIS way”… almost pulling my arm out of its socket.

We were standing next to a statue and next thing I knew, he grabbed both my hands and proceeded to say lots of words. All the words! I cant recall them exactly… but they were beautiful and I remember trying to take them all in, remembering to breathe whilst thinking… is he going to…. OMG! I then remember him getting down on one knee, pulling a ring box out of his pocket and saying…

WILL YOU MARRY ME?

Of course I said “YES!”, then cried!

He even had a ring, which I later found out he had hidden in our garage for months and had been carrying around in his backpack since we left Australia. It was a fakie… smart boy, he knew it wasn’t a good idea to travel through South America for months with a diamond ring and he wanted me to pick the real ring when we got home.

There were people surrounding us, smiling, pointing and some even with tears in their eyes. A lady who just happened to be from Sydney came straight over, congratulated us and asked for our camera. She then proceeded to direct us in a photo shoot re-enactment of our proposal. As it was only minutes later, she managed to capture that moment and the butterflies in our tummies. Lady from Sydney, whoever you are… we are forever thankful.

We then watched the sun set and took a bunch of photos. It was one of the most vivid sunsets I’ve ever seen!

Not wanting to leave our magical spot at the top of our mountain {yep, it was totally OUR mountain now}, we grabbed a celebratory drink from the bar. Unfortunately they didn’t have bubbles on offer, so we had a Heineken – the exact same hue as my green dress which is now forever known as “The Heineken Dress”.

After sunset, we got the cable car back down, wondering if we’d ever come back to this magical spot again in our lifetime, joking that we would bring our un-born kids one day.

We then went to dinner at a restaurant in Copacabana where we had many a caipirinha {when in Brazil you must drink their national cocktail!} and then danced the night away at a Bloco. On our walk back to the hotel, the heavens opened up so we danced in the Summer rain with a bunch of strangers. Young, free, soaking wet from the rain & now engaged!

The perfect proposal with memories we will both never forget.

I’d love to hear your engagment story… share share in the comments below.

Here’s a selection of our pics from Rio and the glitz and glamour that is Carnival.